An Example of a Gentrification: Unintended Consequences of an in Situ Rehabilitation Project in Ankara

Abstract

This article is about an early example of gentrification processes in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. A unique form of the gentrification process is examined using a case study of a small inner-city neighborhood on Koza Street through the monitoring of the area between 1998 and 2016, and giving voice to both the gentrifiers and gentrified. Almost ninety percent of the population in the area was displaced despite the inclusionary principles of an in situ Rehabilitation Project which has led to a large scale transformation of the physical space of the street. The study includes four field studies conducted at different time intervals (1998, 2001, 2004, 2009) and a follow-up visit (2016) to the neighborhood, to critically assess the progression of gentrification in Turkey through its phases. Even though gentrification usually refers to the middle class invasion of urban land originally inhabited by the less privileged, our case reveals the effects of successive modes of a gentrification process which starts as an in situ rehabilitation project of a squatter prevention area initiated by a social democratic municipality with the “participation of local groups”, and turns into “gentrification by choice” in the successive years in the shadow of “Third Way” values. What is currently happening could be regarded as “gentrification by force” following urban renewal. In our case, however, the line between the two major components of gentrification, i.e., the “gentrifier” and the “gentrified”, seems to have become ambiguous, which calls for a further analysis of Turkey’s unique political and spatial dynamics.

Keywords

• Gecekondu
• Kentsel (yerel) yönetim politikası
• Üçüncü Yol kentleşmecilik
• Kentsel yenileme
• Soylulaştırma/mütenalaştırma
• Ankara